Tag / amy
KartQuest at MAEPS is now both my favorite and most tragic place for karting, more on this later.
I have been on go-kart less than a handful of occasions in my life. My very first experience was probably in Genting, which did not exactly leave me at all impressed. The karts were super slow and you could floor the accelerator all the way without spinning out or worried about hitting anything. That was some ten years ago.
hello my name is KY, I’m a karting hero
About 2-3 years ago, I went karting with Gareth and got to know Yee Hou at ELITE track. It was fun and competitive, but they were a little too strict and so we somehow did not do it again.
Then we discovered KartQuest, and already been there twice this month.
A total of 10 of us went the first time, with Jaclyn not driving cos it was “too hot” and she wasn’t prepared. I, however, brought my own helmet, wore long sleeve, proper shoes and all. We had a blast, and I also ended up with a huge blister on my right palm after 2 x 10 minute session of intense karting (RM 20 per session). We went all out speeding.
dree & gf, eric, damien, terence, horng, KY, galvin, amy
Last Sunday, Terence, Horng, Rachel, Kerol, Jaclyn, Eric, and I went there again. This time around I was a bit less prepared, no long sleeves, no proper shoes, and I was only wearing shorts. It turned out to be huge loads of fun, I think the guys gave us more than 10 mins per session.
Instead of going all out in speed, we were more towards nudging each other and trying to fish tail the person in front of us. There was quite a lot of almost unintentional accidents, and Horng even broke the tyre wall and created new route by himself.
Blackberry Bold the smartly escaped. meet the new N86 shattered edition
I ended up being the villain of the day by banging everyone else on the track, it was just so addictive and so fun!
But karma has a way of biting you back. I made the mistake of keeping the phones in my pocket while on the track.
They fell, and the Nokia N86 (where majority of the photos on this blog were taken with) probably got rolled over a couple times.
Amazingly, both phones still works 100%.
Who wants to go karting again maybe this weekend!?
XPAX Advert:
Some FAQ about the new XPAX plan
Why is it special?
The first prepaid plan to offer BEST RATES to 15pax across all networks. Voice at 12 sen/min and SMS at 1/2 sen (within celcom) and 6 sen to your 15 fav numbers
How about to other general numbers (those not in 15 chosen ones)?
Voice at 38 sen, SMS at 10 sen, and MMS at 35 sen to any network
To activate new Xpax plan if you’re already an Xpax user, just type MIG XPAX and send to 28882.
For more, go to Xpax FAQ page
Last Sunday a bunch of us went for a good go-kart session at KartQuest located at MAEPS, near UPM. After sweating our collective butts off and myself sustaining a big blister on my palm from two 10 minute sessions of hard work on the track, we proceed to reward ourselves with a very good lunch at Restaurant Yap Yin & Bak Kut Teh at Seri Kembangan.
We ordered 7 dishes for the 8 of us at Yap Yin, a bit too much food heh?
Like many restaurants around Seri Kembangan, on top of a rather comprehensive menu of Chinese dishes to go with rice, Yap Yin also serves Bak Kut Teh. This combination is rarely seen outside this area, usually restaurants are either ‘tai chau’ style, or they solely concentrate on bak kut teh.
Restaurant Yap Yin is located at a pretty busy part of Seri Kembangan, street parking is a bit tough to find, but they do have a couple dedicated parking spots, do take advantage of them.
Braised pork knuckle and innards, kung pao frog, steamed haruan fish
The claim of fame at Yap Yin is their steamed haruan fish (snake head, RM48). The preparation of the steamed fish here is pretty unique, the fish meat is sliced up to bite size, and 2 bottles of Brands chicken essence are poured to the fish upon serving to add to the flavor. It was well worth the price, very smooth texture and with the chicken essence adding a different dimension to the taste, very nice.
The kung pao frog (RM 20) was very flavorful and actually comes with the proper kung pao ingredients – bell pepper, dried red chili, cashew nuts, ginger, and the dark sauce. I’m sure Kim would have ordered an extra plate if she was with us.
One of the most sinful dishes we ordered has to be the braised pork knuckle with innards and chicken feet (RM 20), plenty of fatty porky goodness and chicken feet braised to perfection. Tender and juicy, best with some chili padi.
kampung chicken, tofu with mince pork, lotus root, bak kut teh
The kampung chicken (RM 12) was, well, tasted like kampung chicken, not fatty like normal chicken rice steamed chicken but otherwise not particularly interesting. Tofu with mince pork comes in a clay pot and dark sauce, silky smooth and rather flavorful. Very good value at only RM 8!
The sauted lotus root (RM 16) provided us with some sense of meat vs vegetable balance though in reality we should have ordered something in green to satisfy ourselves visually, oh well!
horng, KY, Adry & gf, Terence, Damien, Amy, Galvin
Just when we thought we had ordered too much, Galvin, being from Klang, couldn’t resist the temptation and ordered a pot of bak kut teh (RM 9). The herbal soup was thick and actually quite nice, but I wouldn’t say it is on par with the proper Klang version.
We well all stuffed silly after lunch, total damage came to RM 191 with drinks and rice included. About RM 24 per person for so many dishes, it was well worth it. Should go there again after next go-kart session!
Address:
Restaurant Yap Yin & Bak Kut Teh
No. 1231, Jalan Sekolah
43300 Seri Kembangan, Selangor
GPS: 3.021839, 101.704372
Tel: 03-8943 5426
Hours: 11:30am to 10pm
BB Update
The Blackberry Bold, Tour, and Curve 8520 (from Xpax)
I was often asked what’s the differences between the few common blackberry models currently officially sold in this country as well as some “underwater” models too. So here’s the very quick comparison:
- Curve 8520 – one of the most affordable Blackberry models, the latest in the Curve series. EDGE, Wifi, touchpad, Media Keys, not that much bigger than a normal phone
- Bold 9000 – used to be one of the highest end Blackberry models, EDGE, 3.5G, Wifi, GPS. One of the biggest and heaviest BB smart phones. Bold 2 is coming soon, and I suspect would be rather pricey.
- Tour 9630 – even though positioned below the Bold (and now Bold 2) series, the Tour is sold over RM 2k in “underwater” market and not officially via Telco. EDGE, 3.5G, GPS, but no Wifi.
- Storm 9500 – the first touch screen Blackberry, EDGE, 3.5G, GPS, but no Wifi. Mixed reviews on the touch screen implementation, but Storm 2 is coming up, we’ll see how much it’ll be sold for.
Every model comes with the beloved BBM, push mail, and all the other messaging technology that earns Blackberry the nickname CrackBerry, they can get very addictive. Every model here works with Xpax BB prepaid too!
If you’re new to the BB world, the 8520 is certainly a good start as it is priced below RM 1000. What kinda other cool phones can you get for that price these days?
It was the day before Chinese New Year and we arrived at Mid Valley Gardens with growling stomachs. Amy had suggested “this place with very nice char siu” that turned out to be the Canton-i that was closed for the new year. We moved to Fong Lye for Taiwanese food but met with the same fate again.
very classy interior, illustrated menu
Just when we were running low on ideas and high on hungriness, we walked by Yuzu and decided to go for it.
The restaurant was quite a bit bigger than it looked from outside the entrance. The interior is classy, comfortable, and best of all, their tables for four are actually big enough to hold 4 set meals. I get pretty irritated when the trays have to be slightly off the edge of table.
the three sets we ordered, sushi, udon, unagi, chawanmushi, tempura, etc
We sat down and after spending some 5 minutes on the pretty big and well illustrated menu, I decided to go for the Nigri Sushi & Inaniwa Udon set. Horng ordered a set that includes unagi, kamameshi (iron pot rice), and tempura. Amy went for unagi bento, miso soup, and a chawanmushi (steamed egg).
And then Horny’s eye was captivated by this particular entry on the menu. Sliced kobe beef with stone grill. It took some 5 seconds before temptation took over and we decided to give this a go to welcome the year of Cow.
kobe beef, YUMS
Food did not take long to arrive. The inaniwa noodle is a type of cold noodle that is served with soba tsuyu (noodle sauce) with some condiments such as wasabi, spring onion, and seaweed. It was smooth and has a very subtle taste that I like, very refreshing.
My set also came with the teapot mushroom soup (like the one i had at Ninja Jones) that I really liked. The sushi though, while very fresh, had just a bit too much rice for my liking.
The kamameshi from the other set was very surprisingly very good, tasting almost like a cross between very good fried rice and lotus leaf rice but yet different. The unagi too, received very good reviews from Amy and Horny.
Horng, KY, and Amy
However, the most memorable dish has got to be the Kobe beef. RM 88 for a dozen thin slices of raw marbled beef. The alternating layer of fats and lean meat looked so good sitting right next to the stone grill with hot burning charcoals.
We grilled it just ever so slightly. With a dip in the sauce and down it went into the mouth. The texture was so tender and yet so rich and succulent. This was the best beef I’ve had so far. Amy was supposed to try only one piece since she “believes in kwan yin” and all but she ended up having 1/3 of everything. It was really very good and I would certainly have it again.
Yuzu is on the 3rd floor at Mid Valley Gardens
The bill came to be a bit over RM 200 for three of us. The sets were around RM 30-50 and the excellent kobe beef was RM 88. A very satisfying meal and I believe I would return to this place.
Address:
Yuzu Japanese Restaurant
T236, 3rd Floor
The Gardens
Mid Valley City
Kuala Lumpur
GPS: 3.118675, 101.676085
Tel: 03-2284 7663
